Rand Paul’s privacy push gets ears in Berkeley

Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday took his case for civil liberties to one of the most liberal enclaves in the country — and lived, politically, to tell the tale.

The Kentucky senator drew a largely friendly reception at the University of California-Berkeley as he skewered the intelligence community, argued his party must “evolve, adapt or die” and left the door open for a 2016 presidential run.

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Paul also announced that when he returns to Washington, he will push for the establishment of a select committee of policymakers designated to oversee intelligence gathering. The proposal comes in the wake of allegations from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that the CIA may have, without authorization, searched computers used by Senate Intelligence Committee staffers — something the agency denies.

“It should be bipartisan, it should be independent and wide-reaching,” Paul said of the proposed committee. “It should have full power to investigate and reform those who spy on us in the name of protecting us. It should watch the watchers. Our liberties are slipping away from us.”

But while blasting the intelligence community, the libertarian-leaning senator also sought common ground with young people as he pitched them on the importance of strong privacy safeguards.

“When [the intelligence community] says, ‘Oh, it’s only boring old business records,’ think what information is on your Visa bill,” Paul said. “From your bill, the government can tell whether you drink, whether you smoke, whether you gamble, what books you read, what magazines you read, whether you see a psychiatrist, what medications you take.”

He continued, to applause: “I oppose this abuse of power with every ounce of energy I have. I believe that you have a right to privacy, and it should be protected.”

Paul, who has filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency, is a passionate advocate for civil liberties. He also believes that championing privacy could offer the GOP a way to bring more young people into the fold, a bet that was on vivid display during the Bay Area appearance.

During the question-and-answer portion of the appearance, the moderator began, “There’s been pretty extensive media coverage of your recent visits to places that don’t usually vote Republican, like students at Howard University …”

“You mean like Berkeley?” Paul interjected, to laughter and applause.

Asked whether such efforts are an attempt to broaden his “personal appeal” ahead of 2016, Paul responded coyly, “Maybe.”

“Part of it might be that,” he said. “Part of it might be that the Republican Party … has to either evolve, adapt or die. … Remember Domino’s [the pizza chain] finally admitted they had bad crust? I think the Republican Party finally admitted it. OK, bad crust, we need a different kind of party.”

As he has done in the past, Paul pointed to libertarian-minded causes, such as ending indefinite detention and reforming drug sentencing laws, as ways the party could appeal to a broader electorate.

“So something’s gone wrong,” Paul said. “So maybe [if] a candidate would stand up and say, ‘Everyone deserves their day in court,’ that laws should not have a racial outcome, maybe then people would say, ‘You know what, I’ve always hated those Republicans, and their crust sucks, but maybe there’s some new Republicans, maybe there’ll be a new GOP.’ We’ll see.”

Aside from quick detours to discuss issues such as lower taxes, which received a full-throated defense from Paul, he spent the bulk of his speech slamming the NSA, the CIA and the politicians who defend some of the spy agencies’ more controversial intelligence-gathering tactics.

“Your rights, especially your right to privacy, are under assault,” he said. He added that in the wake of the news concerning the CIA’s alleged searches tied to Senate staffers, “I think I perceive fear of an intelligence community that’s drunk with power, unrepentant and uninclined to relinquish power.”

NSA officials, he said, have displayed “sheer arrogance.”

“They’re only sorry they got caught,” he said, though he noted that he is for due process, not “against the NSA per se.”

He criticized Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for once saying he offered the “least untruthful” answer to a question about the extent of the NSA’s data collection. Paul said Clapper should be tried for perjury, a suggestion he has made before, and a stance that drew applause in Berkeley.

“As Americans, we don’t deserve the ‘least untruthful’ way,” he said. “We have a right to the truth, we deserve the truth and we demand the truth from our officials.”

NSA leaker Edward Snowden presents a complex question, Paul said. On one hand, it would be “chaos” if sensitive information was leaked indiscriminately; on the other, “without the Snowden leaks the spies would still be blithely doing what they pleased.”

“Clapper lied in the name of security,” the senator said. “Snowden told the truth in the name of privacy.”

The Republican also went after President Barack Obama in a brief section that touched on the sensitive subject of race.

“I find it ironic that the first African-American president has, without compunction, allowed this vast exercise of raw power by the NSA. Certainly [the late FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover’s illegal spying on Martin Luther King and others in the civil rights movement should give us all pause,” he said.

And while he acknowledged Obama is not Hoover, Paul cautioned: “Power must be restrained because no one knows who will next hold that power.”